The Minister of Planning and Economic Development (MoPED), Madam Kenyeh Barlay on Friday 30th May 2025 visited the Kono Government Hospital (KGH) in Koidu Town to get first-hand information on the implementation of one of the biggest investments in the country and one of the fastest transforming hospitals in the country with specialist doctors and other health professionals to achieve government’s human capital development agenda.
The Minister also visited the innovative agric-tech farm-the Yormateh Youth Farmers Association in Tombodu, Kamara Chiefdom that was founded in 2012 and the bridge linking Kamara and Sandor Chiefdoms that is being funded by the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA).
Some of the facilities that the hospital will host when completed include a laboratory, blood bank, Maternal & Child Health Department, Cervical Center, theater, Labor and Delivery Ward, Isolation Unit, oxygen plant, Sterilization Department, Baby Unit, specialized neo-natal, two boreholes, Storage and Filtration Unit, two incinerators, 17-beds Intensive Care Unit and an Outpatient Department.
The facility also includes a 28,000 square meter warehouse, students’ dormitories and a Training Center at Dorma outside Koidu Town.
It was further disclosed that 65% of the equipments for the hospital are imported and that a total staff of 150 would work in the hospital when completed.
The hospital project is been implemented by Partners in Health (PIH), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation while the contractors are Build Health International with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts.
When completed, the new facility will be a maternal center of excellence as it was disclosed that although the hospital is doing a lot, more still needs to be done including continuous staff training, provision of state-of-the-art equipments and will be jointly managed for 10 years by HIP and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation before it is handed over to the latter.
To ensure sustainability, currently, 80% of the staff are Sierra Leoneans, mostly female youths, who are trained on the job.
The Minister asserted that she is pleased to visit the facility and impressed with work done so far, enlightened about the Government’s Big Five Game Changers 2024-2030 underscoring that the health sector is very important to national development and life-saving interventions but noted that the world is now challenged by geo-political rivalries.
Madam Kenyeh Barlay further noted that resources invested in the health sector in the past did not translate into reality, that she is looking forward to the completion of the facility and promised to look into the request made for more staff to be sent to the hospital.
Dr. Mohamed Sankoh, the District Medical Officer underscored that the health infrastructure is key to quality health care, that the KGH has been transformed to a teaching hospital that is visited by students from the Ernest Bail Koroma and Njala Universities respectively for practicals.
The Mayor of the Koidu New Sumbehun Town Council, Komba Sam revealed that PIH is a model for the country, that by the end of this year, the standard facility would be commissioned by the President and rated the MoDEP 95% in terms of performance and service delivery.
Some of the issues raised by stakeholders include that PIH has improved the health situation not only in Sierra Leone but the entire West Africa sub-region, that there is increase in the MPOX cases in the district for which massive sensitization is ongoing in schools and other communities, that the new hospital facility would be completed by March 2026 and that running the generators at the Kono Government Hospital is very expensive.
Stakeholders also revealed that completion of the theater and laboratory are priorities, that some of their challenges include shortage of staff, as most of them are volunteers and not pin-coded inspite of the high influx of patients and that they treat over 1,500 patients per week.
On Saturday 31st May 2025, the Minister also visited the innovative agric-tech farm-the Yormateh Youth Farmers Association in Tombodu, Kamara Chiefdom that was founded in 2012 and the bridge linking Kamara and Sandor Chiefdoms that is being funded by the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA).
The project has cultivated 130 acres of rice, offering students hands-on training in agriculture and related fields.
According to the Chairman of the Kono District Council, Mr. Augustine Sahr Sheku, this is the first locally-owned innovative agric-tech center in the country lamenting that the district has not benefited from diamonds and that the council is under-funded and underlined that now that diamond mining has been exhausted, the district must pay attention to agriculture and disclosed plans to reclaim mined-out areas for agriculture.
Addressing staff and stakeholders, the MoPED Minister disclosed that the Ministry is translating government’s vision for Sierra Leone and highlighted that the project fits into all the Five Big Game Changers and that she wants the project replicated nationwide.
Madam Kenyah Barlay also observed that there are insufficient funds to implement the Medium-Term National Development Plan for which her Ministry would mobilize both local (Minerals Wealth Fund) and international resources and appealed to the people to embrace the project.
Some project staff will travel to Saville, Spain at the end of this month to attend a conference on related issue.
